To cite one issue, leaders are worried about the declining supply of water in regions vital to economic growth. This isn’t merely a problem for the developing areas. Tuvalu is suffering its worst run of droughts in decades, and even Texas is finding its agricultural and electrical infrastructure strained by what the New York Times calls “catastrophic droughts.”

Municipalities are looking for ways to improve the efficiency of their “greywater” management facilities, and local innovations could be the key. Greywater is wastewater generated from daily activities like washing dishes and doing the laundry. It’s often recycled by cities for uses such as landscape irrigation, fountains and local wetlands.

Managing greywater is a vital part of civic life in the Southwest United States, where every drop of water is a precious resource. States like California, Arizona and New Mexico often do battle over scarce water supplies. Finding a better way to manage water is essential.

Sustainable water company Organica proposes a solution: BlueHouse. In a video submitted to Planet Forward, Organica explained how their new home system maximizes water management while providing all of the comforts Americans currently enjoy:

Organica says its units can process up to 50,000 gallons of water per day, making them eligible for the top tier of greywater licensing in states like Arizona and Nevada. BlueHouse treats household water on-site, without the need for pumps or external treatment facilities. This takes advantage of some pioneering new approaches to water management in Arizona.

Arizona’s greywater laws encourage individual innovation and compliance with state regulations by giving each individual or company a free hand to design a water treatment program of the right size and scope. Arizona eschews one-size-fits-all mandates by allowing industry to develop solutions for gray water management so long as they remain within the general guidelines of Arizona’s law.

As Arizona water policy expert Art Ludwig notes, allowing individuals to design their own, situation-specific systems improved compliance by up to 50%, saving valuable water and lowering government regulatory costs. To encourage home water management, the law allows any facility processing 400 gallons of water or less per day to build a full system without any special permits. Some even qualify for tax credits!

Arizona balances its individualized law with harsh penalties for noncompliance with water management laws, including suspensions of business licenses and hefty fines. According to compliance statistics statewide, Arizona’s model has been successful at fostering a center of water management innovation. New Mexico even asked Ludwig to share Arizona’s secrets with the New Mexico State Legislature.

As the developed world comes to realize that water management isn’t just a developing world problem, more states and regions will likely need innovations and compliance-centric water laws to ensure their long-term survival. States shouldn’t be planning for the next dozen years. They should be planning for the next billion people. And the next Danica May Camacho.

“Traditionally, American environmentalism wins its biggest victories after some important piece of American environment is poisoned, exterminated or set on fire. An oil spill and a burning river in 1969 led to new anti-pollution laws in the 1970s. The Exxon Valdez disaster helped create an Earth Day revival in 1990 and sparked a landmark clean-air law.

“But this year, the worst oil spill in U.S. history — and, before that, the worst coal-mining disaster in 40 years — haven’t put the same kind of drive into the debate over climate change and fossil-fuel energy.”

A few weeks ago we talked to John Pemberton of Southern Company, who says that instead of furthering the debate over a climate bill, the oil spill as stalled it. The emotional power of the disaster will make congressional members less likely to compromise and take “small steps forward”: “We still have a long term energy debate in congress that is not going to solved with short term political decisions.”

The Clean Water Act was passed 28 months after the river fire, 33 months after the oil spill, so the political fallout of the oil spill still has time to develop. Maybe a few months of cleaning up the damage and trying to make things right in the gulf will help congress decide whether or not to move forward with changing the way we use energy.

How will this event affect energy policy – and politics?

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The average carbon footprint of a person living in Bangladesh is about 1.1 tons a year (the average American footprint is 29 tons), and yet if sea levels were to rise by one meter, one fifth of the country would disappear, leaving about 30 million people homeless.

The World Bank has described Bangladesh as the most “climate vulnerable [country] in the world”.

If you could talk to a boy on the streets of Bangladesh, how would you explain the situation? This video explores what a unique conversation might look like, if [ice] walls could talk.

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Marc Spitzer of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) makes his case for a transformation of our vehicle fleet to plug-ins. He is confident that America has the technology to power 20 million plug-in vehicles in the next five years.

But is it all that easy? Maybe, maybe not. Can our outdated electrical grid withstand the demand of that many vehicles? What would the real carbon reductions be? According to the California Air Resources Board, a kilometer’s worth of PHEV charge should on an average result in just 43% reduction in carbon dioxide as compared to gas.

Join the debate at Planet Forward

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But is it the magic bullet that will save our rural economies? Nacho Corbella of UNC’s Powering the Nation answers this question in his video “Roping the Wind” about a small farming town in Texas where wind turbines and farm fields coexist to support the local economy.

We took Corbella’s idea to four influential thinkers and asked them–is wind the energy of the future? Dr. Dan Lashoff (Natural Resources Defense Council), Kate Sheppard (Mother Jones), Ana Unruh-Cohen (Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming, and Jim Connaughton (Constellation Energy) weigh in.

Watch other videos from Powering the Nation on Planet Forward.

What does a catastrophic event look like? Now we know.

The debate around offshore drilling has been fundamentally changed by the disaster in the gulf.  A CNN/Opinon Research survey found that <a href=”http://enviroknow.com/2010/05/24/cnn-poll-support-for-offshore-drilling-down-17-since-august-2008/” target=”_hplink”>support for drilling dropped 17%</a> between August 2008 and May 2010. 

But others say getting oil offshore is essential to our energy mix, and that the dangers associated with the technique are necessary risks to keep our way of life going.  Watch this video by George Washington University students Ryder Haske and Elizabeth Chernef and weigh in, below.

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How can we reasonably assess and digest the risk that this kind of energy production brings with it? After all, there is risk in the mines as we’ve painfully seen. There is risk in the air when we fly. There is risk crossing the street. It’s all about cost, benefit and consequence — as BP has already acknowledged. Will this be the THREE MILE ISLAND of oil drilling? Remember — after TMI we all but stopped nuclear construction and the industry was — pardon the pun — radioactive. 31 years later and we’re just now — maybe — about to restart the nuclear industry. TMI for oil? Is this the reality that will wash ashore with the spill — or will the public and the pols make a different calculation?

From the climate/energy bill and Obama saying we need to drill more offshore…to this. A new sense of reality. And vulnerability.

What a difference a spill makes.

Read more at Planet Forward.

But without a climate bill, it will be a piecemeal approach.  And the EPA may be the main arm of the government regulating carbon sources, including power plants and businesses.

With the climate bill in limbo, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is playing enforcer and reconciler at the same time.  We got both at last week’s interview with her.

 

On the one hand, she praises the “heroic efforts” of climate bill sponsors Kerry, Liberman and Graham. But when pressed about a potential gasoline tax, a major part of the bill, she says it’s a “headline that people don’t want to discuss right now.”

What is the administration willing to sacrifice to get a bill?  Watch the first section of our live interview with her and find out.  See all clips with Lisa Jackson on Planet Forward>>

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On April 20 I talked with Lisa Jackson, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency about about the upcoming climate legislation, innovation in carbon reductions and the upcoming priorities for the Obama Administration.

Watch all clips with Lisa Jackson on Planet Forward>>

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s Live Interview (1 of 4)

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Part 2

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Part 3

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What is corporate responsibility and why should we care? Richard Crespin of the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association (CRO) answers this question and goes on to name names: the top companies on the CRO Black List, or companies for whom zero points of relevant data can be found to rate its corporate citizenship. And it may surprise you who made it.

Major companies have been pushing their way into the corporate responsibility space for years. And according to Crespin, being good pays. The companies who have made it on their sister list, the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, have seen a total return on shareholder value of 2.37 percent over three years.

How did the blacklisted companies fare on climate? Is there room for redemption? See what Crespin has to say about it.

Watch the video and weigh in on Planet Forward.

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